The musings, advice, stories, tips, and much more of a 25+ year veteran of the antiques business. From a picker to a picker/dealer, and back!
Friday, December 29, 2017
The Manitoba Runestone - Treasure Lead #6
No idea what a runestone is? Click here to find out.
Yes, I have a lead on a Norse runestone...here in Manitoba!
It, like the Kensington Stone discovered before it, was found tangled in roots of some trees a farmer was taking up while clearing land for cultivation.
This stone was said to be sandstone, which doesn't bode well for preservation, being as stone that would soon weather after the inscription was carved....except this stone's location made it the ideal candidate for preservation underground.
You see, it was located at a spot that would have been lakeshore of one of Manitoba's largest lakes.
If you are familiar with those lakes, you will realize that come winter and spring, the ice can move ashore under certain conditions, and would effectively bulldoze the stone.
This action would have likely tipped it over and as fate would have it, it seems to have been covered up either at that time, or gradually by further seasons of similar ice and wave action/erosion. The location it was found at is now roughly a mile from the current location of the shore. BUT, when you take into account isostatic rebound, it is located on what used to be the lake shore during the period the Norse could have theoretically traversed the lake system, 900 to 1400 AD.
Don't bother going looking for it at its discovery site, though. It was removed, and shortly after broken in two pieces. It was then in assorted private hands.
However, I have traced it to its last known location. Just a matter of doing some door knocking now. This might just be the first treasure I do locate out of the ones I have already listed....or I may find out it was discarded, destroyed due to the owners not knowing what they had.
Not looking forward to it being that particular outcome.
Either way, there is a photograph of the stone out there, and if you have heard of said stone, and know of where I can get a crisp copy, I'd be grateful for the assistance.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Wow. This is something I heard of once, but could never find any additional information. I hope you will be able to discover it, or enough of it to find out what it said.
ReplyDelete